1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a grass based avian deterrent. More specifically, the invention relates to a grass cultivar and endophyte combination that produces alkaloid toxins sufficient to deter avian species from the grass cultivar and endophyte combination.
2. Description of the Related Art
Avian populations can be undesirable in certain environments. Bird populations can have a devastating effect on horticultural and agricultural crops, cause severe damage to an aircraft in the event of a bird strike and can simply be an irritant, for example in recreational areas.
More specifically, bird populations can quickly destroy fruit crop(s) such as apricots, peaches, apples, kiwifruit and the like through feeding on the ripening fruit. Similarly, birds can also significantly reduce the harvest of seed or grains from various cereal and grain crops (e.g., wheat production).
For the aviation industry, the problem is highly significant as a bird strike incident can severely disrupt normal aircraft handling and can even be a significant causal factor in aircraft crashes.
In the above situations as well as in general, bird populations around water ways or in recreation areas and even around domestic housing can also be a nuisance. Other problems such as water and ground contamination from bird excrement can also be significant.
Various attempts have been made to deter birds from an area. These act on primary initial response mechanisms e.g., a loud noise or act using a secondary response, for example, making the bird ill by feeding the bird bait which includes a chemical irritant.
In more detail, primary deterrents include acoustical distress calls, gas guns, lights, lasers, dogs, falconry, kites and balloons which all work to frighten the birds from an area. Other methods such as sticky pastes, spikes, wires and netting may also be used.
Secondary deterrents include a (UV) light product known as ultra violet anthraquinone, methyl anthranilate (MA), taste aversion sprays and poisons such as methiocarb carbamate (Mesurol 50 HBT).
However, each of the above methods has disadvantages. Primary deterrents generally do not work over a longer term as birds ‘learn’ that the danger is not real. In addition, these methods usually involve significant financial and labour costs to install and run the devices and arrangements used to deter the birds.
Secondary methods have the obvious problem of allowing at least a first strike by the birds. In the case of baits, the birds may not all eat the bait and hence it may take some time before the full deterrent effect is obtained. In addition the deterrents need to be re-applied on a regular basis and in some environments, simply cannot be used for risk of the chemical agents contaminating food or water.
A further problem is that the above methods need to be carried out numerous times during a given period of time. For example, baits may need to be used on numerous occasions to achieve the deterrent effect and, later another cycle may need to be completed to deal with new populations of birds arriving.
Therefore, the subject matter of the present invention is drawn to providing the public with useful compositions and their uses as well as methods for addressing such problems.